Friday, July 9, 2010

A Hard Week Pays Off

Dan and My Nasty Feet After the Hike

This week was a tough one...we hiked 28 miles in two days. The hiking was gorgeous, yet HOT! We were placing thermographs (data loggers that store 2 months of temperature data from the streams we place them in) in 3 streams that are in a recent burn area. A lightning storm a year or two back completely altered the forest system so the thermographs are a means to monitor the change the streams are undergoing in response to the fire. As of right now we still have one stream to tackle, but after 28 miles, 6 popped blisters, one cranky attitude, and one pulled hip flexor, we decided to take a day or two before hiking our final 8 miles.

After we were tired and exhausted, I returned to cell phone service and had a voicemail waiting for me... it was from the job in Oregon I was hoping for! I was so excited! I called back, and BAM! I have a job for the fall!! I am part of the Coastal Chinook Salmon Research and Monitoring Project! I start August 16th, just 4 days after my internship ends here in Idaho, yikes! I will be stationed out of Pacific City, Oregon until mid December. The project's main goal is to gather population estimates of Chinook salmon via Mark/Recapture. I will be kayaking/pontooning down the rivers looking for salmon, then using a weir to capture them, mark them, then release them.